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Tax Credits
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean asked Her Majesty's Government:
For the latest year for which figures are available, which government agencies, quangos or departments are involved in administering the tax credit system in the United Kingdom. [HL3726]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: HM Revenue and Customs administers the tax credit system.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean asked Her Majesty's Government:
For the latest year for which figures are available, what assessment they have made of the total cost of administering the tax credit system in the United Kingdom. [HL3727]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: I refer the noble Lord to the information on the costs of collection given on page 104 of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs' 2004-05 annual report, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House.
Taxation: Income Tax
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean asked Her Majesty's Government:
For the latest year for which figures are available, which government agencies, quangos or departments are involved in administering personal income tax in the United Kingdom. [HL3750]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have been solely responsible for administering personal income tax in the United Kingdom since April 2005. Previously this was the responsibility of the Inland Revenue.
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Terrorism Bill
Viscount Goschen asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will provide a precise chronology of events concerning the receipt of a letter written by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights dated 28 November 2005 including (a) the date on which the letter was first received by a representative of the Government; (b) to which branches of Government that letter was subsequently transmitted, on which dates, and on which dates it was received; (c) when any Government Minister or private office first became aware of the existence of that letter; and (d) why the Government did not take immediate action to transmit the letter to Opposition Members of the House of Lords, as the letter requested. [HL3323]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: The letter from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 28 November 2005 and was passed to the Home Office late on 2 December. It was passed to Ministers on 12 December though I personally did not become aware of its existence until 9 January 2006. The Government could not have complied with the UN High Commissioner's request to make her letter available to Members of the House of Lords before Second Reading of the Terrorism Bill since she did not write to the Government until a week after that had taken place. The Government published the UN High Commissioner's letter under cover of a Written Ministerial Statement in good time to enable amendments to the Terrorism Bill arising from it to be tabled.
Treasury: BlackBerries
Baroness Noakes asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much HM Treasury has spent in each of the seven financial years ending on 31 March 2005 on the acquisition and use of BlackBerry devices or equipment with similar functionality. [HL3797]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: The Treasury does not record the costs of acquiring or using BlackBerries (being all-in-one mobile phones, email devices, web browsers and organisers) or similar devices separately from other telecommunications costs, so the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Treasury: Mobile Telephones
Baroness Noakes asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much HM Treasury has spent in each of the seven financial years ending on 31 March 2005 on the acquisition and use of mobile telephones. [HL3796]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: The Treasury does not record the costs of acquiring or using mobile telephones separately from other telecommunications costs, so the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Treasury: Office Space
Baroness Noakes asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will state the average square footage of office space currently occupied by (a) staff, and (b) Ministers of HM Treasury, together with the equivalent figures in May 1997. [HL3798]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: Based on current occupancy, the average square footage per occupant of 1 Horse Guards Road is 193 square feet. This compares with approximately 364 square feet per person in the offices occupied by the Treasury in 1997.
Tropical Rainforests
Lord Eden of Winton asked Her Majesty's Government:
What are the priorities in their efforts to assist in the conservation of tropical rainforests; and to what extent they are able to ensure that indigenous forest people contribute to the formulation of their policies. [HL3808]
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): The UK Government support the conservation of tropical rainforests through the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The countries with tropical rainforests receiving UK support include Brazil, Indonesia, Cambodia, Cameroon and Ghana. The Department for International Development (DfID) spends approximately £19 million a year through its country programmes on forestry, with a view to promoting its contribution to sustainable economic growth and livelihoods.
The priority is to address the governance and market failures that drive illegal and unsustainable logging of tropical rainforests. The Government do this by working through the G8, the EU and other programmes which help strengthen forest governance and tackle corruption. The UK is also helping to develop markets and incentive-based approaches to pay for and conserve the ecosystem services that rainforests provide.
This work is carried out in partnership with a wide range of organisations to protect the livelihoods of forest-dependent poor people—including indigenous people. In Ghana and Cameroon, for example, DfID programmes are strengthening civil society and advocacy groups which support indigenous people to use the policy and regulatory frameworks that secure their rights to forests.
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This support to civil society groups helps strengthen demand for accountable and transparent forest governance and policies. In Brazil, DfID has supported the Indigenous People's Demonstration Project to enhance the capacity of indigenous people's organisations to protect their culture and land.
In the Congo Basin region, DfID is supporting civil society strengthening and dialogue between governments, the private sector and NGOs. In Cambodia DfID has supported work on independent forest monitoring carried out by Global Witness. Protecting the rights of indigenous people was central to this work.
DfID has also funded a study on the impacts of improved forest governance and law enforcement on the livelihoods of the poor, including indigenous people. The Forest People's Programme, which represents the interests of indigenous people, helped to carry out this research.
Lord Eden of Winton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are reviewing the role of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan and the United Nations Forum on Forests in controlling illegal logging operations; and what further action they propose to take on this matter. [HL3810]
Baroness Amos: The Tropical Forestry Action Plan ended in the 1990s. The Department for International Development and other development agencies now contribute to the National Forest Programme Facility, which is hosted by, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The facility is supporting 46 developing countries in the development of their forest policies and plans.
The FAO and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) have jointly developed guidelines to tackle illegal logging. The commodity agreement governing ITTO, the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), was renegotiated
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in January 2006. The new agreement makes provision for tackling illegal logging.
The subject of illegal logging was addressed for the first time during the fifth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) in 2005, based on a paper submitted by the United Kingdom representative on practical actions to combat illegal logging. The future of the UNFF will be discussed at the sixth session in February 2006. The United Kingdom will promote actions to control illegal logging within whatever arrangements follow on from the UNFF.
Unemployment: West Wales
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord McKenzie of Luton: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl on behalf of the National Statistician, dated 13 February 2006.
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about unemployment. I am replying in her absence. [HL3777]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics of unemployment for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) following International Labour Organisation definitions.
The unemployment rate for the West Wales and the Valleys NUTS* II area was 5.2 per cent. for the 12 months ending December 2004.
These estimates, as with any from sample surveys, are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
*NUTS (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics) was established by the Statistical Office of European Union (Eurostat) to provide a uniform breakdown of territorial units for the production of regional statistics. NUTS is a five-level hierarchical classification.
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